Sony Online Entertainment announced that its next annual fan gathering, SOE Live 2014, will be held at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas from Aug. 14 - Aug. 17, 2014. The 2014 event will celebrate 15 years of SOE's games, with activities and events that revolve around its line-up of games including DC Universe Online, Dragon's Prophet, EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide 2, Vanguard Saga of Heroes and the upcoming EverQuest Next Landmark and EverQuest Next.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that "new, current and returning EverQuest II players" will be able to purchase high level characters in its free-to-play MMO beginning today. This, the company says, will allow players to jump right into the Tears of Veeshan expansion, when it launches in November. To celebrate the launch of the program, SOE will allow players to create one permanent Heroic Character for free as part of its "Hero's Call" event. That will run from October 1-15.

Sony Online Entertainment has changed the name of its annual fan event to SOE LIVE. The freshly rebranded fan event is scheduled to take place at Bally's in Las Vegas, October 18-21, 2012. The annual SOE-sponsored event will allow the company to offer broader support for all of its various titles including DC Universe Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, PlanetSide 2, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Sony Online Entertainment's long-running MMORPG EverQuest, has been inducted into the Game Developers Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame. EQ joins Ultima Online, which in the early days of MMO's was its closest and toughest competition at the time. Surprisingly both games are still running. EQ was recognized for its contribution to the long-term advancements of online gaming, pioneering major shifts in the medium's development and video games as a whole. EverQuest introduced the concept of raiding within an online world and improved the concept of a guild.

University of Minnesota doctoral candidate Kyong Shim was practically laughed off campus when she said she wanted to study video games. But three years later Shim is getting the last laugh as various government agencies and the United States Army utilize her data and expertise for training and research on human behavioral patterns.

The Army has signed on to study and use the teamwork aspect of MMORPGs to improve communications and teamwork when tackling a common goal. Shim and other researchers from universities across the country sifted through terabytes of anonymous EverQuest II user data provided by Sony Online Entertainment to find patterns and communication characteristics. Sony provided researchers with anonymous player communications, game logs, and other game data.

Kotaku editor Mike Fahey has written a wonderfully detailed and candid first-person account of his addiction to EverQuest.

Fahey begins his story in late 2000, noting that he had a job, a car and a girlfriend. Shortly after, following the breakup of his relationship, he was enticed to join the online world of EverQuest at the behest of his roommate. Falling completely for the game he soon found himself unemployed, his car towed and his wallet empty. While he rebounded for a time, he apparently committed the long rumored, rarely admitted geek-sin of turning down relations for a chance to hit level 40 with his character.

Mike again rebounded, turning his addiction into a job, which helped, as he states, “I've managed to turn a habit that once interrupted my work into something I actively have to do for work. It's no longer escapism if I am doing my job.”

Fahey also admitted that the fault was mostly, if not all, his own:

I hid. I ran from my problems, hiding away in a virtual fantasy world instead of confronting the issues that might have been easily resolved if I had addressed them directly. As far as I am concerned, the only thing Sony Online Entertainment is guilty of is creating a damn good hiding place.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm